In the last six years, Nigeria has spent approximately N2.48 trillion on education sector but with little or nothing to show for it, Independent can now reveal. Budgetary provisions do not make the desired impact for a variety of reasons including inadequate budgeting, poor implementation and diversion of funds, among other challenges, according to analysts. Nigeria has consistently voted less and less to the education sector as a percentage of GDP, an indication of the non-prioritisation of the sector by successive governments.
Nigeria’s education share of the budget to GDP falls well below the level in sub-Sahara Africa, according to data from United Nations’ Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), covering 1996 to 2000, the most recent period for which data is available. While the average education budget to GDP ratio in sub-Sahara is 4.7 percent, Nigeria’s ratio is 2.3 percent. The same low figures were recorded on the expenditure to budget ratio. In sub-Sahara Africa, the ratio is 19.6 percent while in Nigeria it is 14.3 percent. In the last six years, the country budgeted the following sums for education: N306.3 billion in 2011, N400.15 billion in 2012, N426.53 billion in 2013; N493 billion in 2014, N492 billion in 2015 and N369 billion in 2016 which sums up to N2.48 trillion.
No more than half of budgetary allocations are eventually deployed to the sector, according to a publication by the Centre for Social Justice entitled ‘Right to Education in Nigeria’. According to the study, on the average over the 2009-2013 periods, only 55.4% of the total released capital budget for the sector was utilized for projects. According to the group, it showed a low absorptive capacity on the part of the Federal Ministry of Education. Further, the average utilisation rate vis-à-vis the overall education capital budget was 44.7% over the period. The percentage of capital budget released on the average was 60.15% and the percentage of capital budget cash backed amounted to 57.22%. Beyond absorptive capacity of the sector, government itself delays in releasing funds to the sector.
A stakeholder, who spoke to Independent on condition of anonymity, recalled the drama that played out at the 2016 budget defence for education, saying it was pointer to the poor outcomes in the sector. He recalled that Mrs. Folasade Yemi-Esan, the Permanent Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Education, disclosed that of the N483.183 billion education budget in 2015, only N13.279 billion was released. Minister of State for Education, Professor Anthony Anwuka, who appeared before the Senate Committee on Secondary School Education for budget defence, added that only 50 percent of N23.5 billion, amounting to N11.9 billion, was released for capital education.
The publication by the Centre for Social Justice summarised problems of the sector to include poor budgeting and non-alignment of budgets with development plans. It stated that stakeholders are not brought on board in budgeting for the implementation of strategic frameworks and national plans. It further states that structural issues involving the duplication of agencies rendering the same service and resulting in huge overlays for recurrent votes abound. Speaking to Independent, Comrade Taiwo Hassan, National Coordinator, Education Rights Congress (ERC), says much should be attributed to “the level of corruption in the system”. “This only confirms the enormous corruption in the system.
Just look at the EKO project and the massive mismanagement that has rendered it nearly ineffective. “The truth is that funds are disappearing even before they get to schools. But even at the level of schools, these funds are still endangered given the undemocratic ways schools, primary, secondary and tertiary, are run.” According to a United Nations’ Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) report, despite a significant increase in net enrolment rates in recent years, it is estimated that about 4.7 million children of primary school age are still not in school. Increased enrolment rates have also created challenges in ensuring quality education and satisfactory learning achievement as resources are spread more thinly across a growing number of students.
It is not rare to see cases of 100 pupils per teacher or students sitting under trees outside the school building because of the lack of classrooms. All the three tiers of learning are not spared of varying degrees of challenges from inadequacies of regulatory authorities to conduct hitch free entrance examinations, non-payment of salaries, neglect of schools in the rural areas, poor remuneration of teachers, poor infrastructure, problem of access, and falling standard, among others.
No comments:
Post a Comment